From Ó hÉalaithe, ‘ingenious one’ — two unrelated septs, one in Donegal's Fanad, the other among the Eóghanacht of Cork and Kerry.
Gaelic Origin · Root meaning ‘ingenious, clever’
Healy comes from éalaí, read as ‘ingenious’ or ‘clever’. Two genuinely separate Ó hÉalaithe septs carried the name — one rooted in the Fanad peninsula of Donegal, the other part of the Eóghanacht dynasty spread across Cork and Kerry — with no shared ancestor linking them.
A compliment of a name, claimed twice over in opposite corners of the country, and earned, by both accounts, either time.
Irish form: Ó hÉalaithe
